A glance at various skin problems

Your skin is the largest organ in your body. Far from being just something that covers you up so that no-one can peek inside, your skin is quintessentially important for keeping you alive and healthy. For example, your skin plays a major role in keeping your core body temperature and fluid balance constant, and acts as a barrier against infections and injuries.

Many skin conditions exist that can test your nerves that is why some doctors, called dermatologists, and nurses specialise in diagnosing and managing skin disorders. However, you may be surprised to hear that your doctor and nurse are able to deal with the vast majority of common skin conditions, and people only rarely need a specialist referral.

This blog helps you to spot symptoms and signs of some major and common skin conditions, and tells you when to go for skin treatment from a professional dermatologist. Because skin conditions are so ‘visual’, be sure to check out the photo section to see what some of them look like.

Checking Out Rampant Rashes

Rashes are a common problem. In particular, infectious diseases in childhood often present with a rash. Identifying and working out the cause of a rash can be tricky – even health professionals sometimes struggle – but this blog helps you to recognise some of the more common and important ones. Following recognition, a skin treatment might be needed to rectify any issues and further development of rashes. 

Rashes That Cause Itchiness and Irritation

The appearance of a rash or skin lesion may not bother or worry you too much, but the itch can drive you mad! There are two particularly common itchy rashes – Atopic Eczema and Nettle Rash (known as urticaria) – that may cause you a lot of concern. If you are not sure what to make of a rash, or if you develop itching without a rash, consult your dermatologist.

Symptoms of Atopic Eczema

• Your skin feels dry most of the time.
• Your skin becomes irritated and red in some areas.
• Your skin creases are mainly affected.
• Your skin is itchy and the feeling gets worse erratically.

Symptoms of Nettle Rash

• Weals appear on any part of your skin.
• Weals look white or red and have a small red area of skin called a flare surrounding them. This flare looks a bit like a nettle sting.
• New weals can appear at any time.
• Tissue elsewhere, such as your eyelids or lips, may also swell.

What to do when faced with burns, bites and rashes (healthcare urgency)

It is always helpful to have first hand information on how to effectively treat problems like burns, rashes and bites when they suddenly occur. However, there may be some cases when home remedies do not come to the rescue and it is necessary to get immediate medical treatment.

Following are some sure-shot methods to treat these conditions so that the patient can recover swiftly and appropriately.

What are the treatment options for a burn?

There are three 'degrees' of burns that one should know.

First degree burn is only impacts the topmost layer of the skin. In a first degree burn, the skin will probably turn pink in the affected area and there can be formation of blister over there. For the treatment, creams containing aloe or antibiotics can help minimise the burning sensation and make it heal faster.

Second degree burn is occurs between the first and second layer of the skin. In a second degree burn, the skin will turn shiny and red in the affected area.

Third degree burn is the worst and there are instances when the skin is completely burnt off and the bone is visible.

In second and third degree burns especially, it is very important to urgent professional assistance so that it can be treated properly.

What are the treatment options for a bite?

Sadly, there are no home remedies for a bite. If someone has been bitten by a snake, an insect or an animal, it is quintessential t get medical help urgently. For any kind of bite that leads to an unusual inflammation or if the skin is slightly ripped off, you should get it checked immediately so that any poison doesn't spread to other parts of the body.

What are the treatment options for a rash?

Rashes primarily occur because of factors such as dust, pollen, moulds etc. If any of these irritants come in contact with the skin, the skin may start to itch and a rash may appear. Rashes may occur only once or they may reappear periodically. If you suspect the reason behind the rash is an allergy, it is best to visit an allergy specialist so that an anti-allergen can be administered. If it is a minute rash then you can try home remedies by first discarding the irritant and then using prescribed ointments on the rash to rectify the itching.

Finding Out More About Food Allergies

Our immune system is designed to protect our body from harmful invaders, such as bacteria. Sometimes, however, the system responds to substances normally considered harmless. The substance that provokes the attack is called an allergen; the substances that attack the allergen are called antibodies. A food allergy can provoke such a response as your body releases antibodies to attack specific proteins in food. When this happens, some of the physical reactions include:

• Hives
• Itching
• Swelling of the face, tongue, lips, eyelids, hands, and feet
• Rashes
• Headaches, migraines
• Nausea or vomiting
• Diarrhoea, sometimes bloody
• Sneezing, coughing
• Asthma
• Difficulty in breathing caused by swelling of tissues in the throat
• Loss of consciousness

If you are sensitive to a specific food, you may not have to eat the food to have the reaction. For example, people sensitive to peanuts may break out in hives just from touching a peanut or peanut butter and may suffer a potentially fatal reaction after simply tasting chocolate that has touched factory machinery that previously touched peanuts. People sensitive to seafood-fin fish and shellfish-have been known to develop breathing problems after simply inhaling the vapours or steam produced by cooking the fish.

How an allergic reaction occurs

When you eat a food containing a protein to which you’re sensitive, your immune system releases antibodies that hitch a ride on white blood cells called basophils. The basophils circulate through your entire body, giving the antibodies the chance to hop off and bind to immune system cells called mast cells.

Basophils and mast cells produce, store, and release histamine, a natural body chemical that causes the symptoms-itching, swelling, hives-associated with allergic reactions. Yes, that’s why some allergy pills are called antihistamines. When the antibodies carried by the basophils and mast cells come in contact with food allergens, boom! You have an allergic reaction.

Two kinds of allergic reactions

Your body may react to an allergen in one of two ways-immediately or later on:

• Immediate reactions are more dangerous because they involve a fast swelling of tissue, sometimes within seconds after contact with the offending food.
• Delayed reactions, which may occur as long as 24 to 48 hours after you’ve been exposed to the offending food, are usually much milder, perhaps a slight cough or nasal congestion caused by swollen tissues.

Foods Most Likely to Cause Allergic Reactions

Here’s something to chew on: More than 90 percent of all allergic reactions to foods are caused by just eight foods:

• Milk
• Eggs
• Peanuts
• Tree nuts
• Soybean-based foods
• Wheat
• Fish

Coping with Food Allergies

After you know that you’re allergic to a food, the best way to avoid an allergic reaction is to avoid the food. Unfortunately, that task may be harder than it sounds because the offending ingredient may be hidden-peanuts in the chili or caviar (“fish eggs”) in the dip.

Sometimes the “hidden” ingredient is hidden in plain sight on a food label that uses chemical code names for allergens. If you’re someone with a potentially life-threatening allergy to food (or another allergen, such as wasp venom), your nutritionist may suggest that you carry a syringe pre-filled with epinephrine, a drug that counteracts the reactions.